Small flock vs. 50# feed bags.

[TwoCrows]

My feed is as follows...

3 pounds Millet
2 pounds Wheat
2 pounds Cracked Corn
1 pound Rolled Oats
1/2 pound Hulled Sunflower Seed

I take out what I need for 2 days and give it a medium grind in my grain mill. I only grind what I will use in a couple of days to keep it fresh.

For every 12 ounces of ground feed, I add:
1 ounce Farmers Helper Ultra Kibble
1 ounce Kaytee Egg-Cite Egg Food Supplement
1 ounce Mealworms
1 ounce ground oystershell

The oystershell is ground in the grain mill, the other supplements are ground in a coffee grinder.

Everything is mixed together and I mist the feed with water at feeding time to make everything stick together. It makes a slight mash which they love.

The Wheat and Corn can be purchased at most feed stores. The Millet and hulled Sunflower seed I get from a local discount store. The rolled oats I get at the grocery store. The supplements I get on line, the mealworms are purchased in bulk on Ebay.

This mix is about 17% protein, 3% calcium. You can add more oystershell to give them more calcium if needed. I also keep oyster shell on the side.

I find that my birds eat half of what they used to eat of bagged feed since they are not getting fillers and seem to get all they need in smaller amounts. Their poop is small, dry and they poop less. It also does not smell bad like it used to. The Ultra Kibble has fishmeal, dehyrdrated veggies and probiotics, along with many vitamins and minerals. The Egg food has a lot of the amino acids needed to break down protein.Both of these supplement are loaded with good stuff. There is no soy in this mix.

One thing I did notice this fall was that the birds molted fast and hard, verses last year, they molted long and slow. I don't know if this has anything to do with the feed, but to me, the molt was much smoother this year than in previous years.

These grains can last years if stored in cool dry locations.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

At recommended feeding rates for the smaller bodied white leghorn a 50# sack of chicken feed should last a little over 60 days or more depending on the amount of scraps and free range time.

A bigger multi purpose hen like say a Rhode Island Red will eat approximately 50% more feed than the leghorn and produce a few less eggs. So the RIR will consume about 6 to 6.5 ounces of feed daily compared to about 4.4 ounces for the leghorn. Making a bag of feed last about 40 days for 3 larger RIR.

 

[pdirt]

To my knowledge, there is not a feed mill within 100 miles of me, if at all. Thanks, Two Crows. Please tell me what you are using for a "recipe". That may be the direction I need to go. JAJ: freshly ground feed mill grain sounds like a winner. My options are so limited where I am, it seems that it's either prepared feed, or whole grain, all of which is in 50# bags. I could buy a smaller bag, but the small bag is about the same price as the 50# bags.

A couple ideas...if you have a friend nearby with chickens, maybe you could split a 50 lbs bag?

Also, I don't know what you've been using for commercial feed, but most of the stuff I've seen looks disgusting. I wouldn't want to eat it either. Then we found Scratch n Peck feed. Mostly whole/cracked grains, no soy, fish meal and peas for protein, mixed with Fertrell Nutribalancer. Our birds love it and it looks like real food. If you haven't used a feed like this, perhaps you could mail order a small bag and try it. It's also very fresh, with a "milled on date" stamp on the bag. The shipping would be expensive and not sustainable, but if your birds liked it then possibly you could fashion a recipe similar to it. I'm going to do that myself but haven't quite gotten there yet.